blog — grief
Christmas is not all jolly holly for those grieving
The first Christmas without a loved one is especially tough. When I was 23, we had our first Christmas without our mother who had died the month before. I'm sure we put up the decorations, we definitely cooked a meal and carried on all the traditions but I remember a numbness hanging in the air. I have vivid memories of counting the heads around the dinner table because I was sure about 10 people were missing but it was just one big void. Then last year, it was our first Christmas without our father who had died rather suddenly a few months...
Words for those mourning
My sister told me, after the cards went to print, that I'd have to remove the word 'promise' because it was too big a word to compete with the enormity of death and loss.